A Host of Former Kentucky Wildcats are Cashing In and Could Rajon Rondo Land in Houston?
By Wayne
January 14, 2013; Boston, MA USA; Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo (9) during the first half against the Charlotte Bobcats at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Now that Dwight Howard has found a home in Houston, apparently, there is some conjecture that the Rockets are going to pursue the best PG in the game and he happens to hail from the University of Kentucky. The Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets could be in talks to send Rajon to Houston for a big man Omer Asik and PG Jeremy Lin. Now I don’t normally much into this but Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweeted about it earlier and he is rarely out of the loop. I don’t see Dwight and Rondo being a good fit because Rondo is a leader and Howard is too selfish to follow. They’ll constantly clash and Kevin McHale will have to referee a ton.
It really is nice to be part of a national fan base that isn’t bound only to cheer their team on only during the season. In Kentucky Wildcat country, our season goes year ’round. And during this Summer of no college basketball, several former Kentucky Wildcats in the NBA are making plenty of headlines. DeMarcus Cousins, fresh off his second straight 17PPG-9RPG season has been on the minds of the Sacramento Kings; to the point that they’ve made a trip to his home state of Alabama.
"In the last two years, a dozen players have posted 17 points and nine rebounds in a season. Here’s the list with the terms of each player’s most recent contract or extension in parentheses:Blake Griffin (five years, $95 million) Dwight Howard (five years, $83,235,900) David Lee (six years, $79,537,680) LaMarcus Aldridge (five years, $65 million) Al Jefferson (five years, $65 million) Kevin Love (four years, $60,825,938) Al Horford (five years, $60 million) Josh Smith (five years, $58 million) Andrew Bynum (four years, $57.2 million) Pau Gasol (three years, $57 million) Tim Duncan (three years, $30 million) DeMarcus Cousins (four years, $15,800,134) Cousins, whose salary was set by the rookie scale, stands out like a sore thumb. But given his production – he hit 17-9 in both of the last two years – Cousins, who’s eligible to sign an extension before the season or will become a free agent after it, is about to get paid. That’s why, at a time many front-office personnel are jetting around the country in pursuit of free agents, the Kings are meeting with their own player. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports: Sacramento Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro, coach Michael Malone and former NBA player Junior Bridgeman – a friend of new Kings owner Vivek Ranadive – visited center DeMarcus Cousins in his hometown of Mobile, Ala., on Wednesday to let Cousins know they consider him a cornerstone of the franchise’s future. “DeMarcus is a really talented player and we look forward to him being a major part of this team,” D’Alessandro told Yahoo! Sports. “We want him to get better as a player and help him get there. That’s our mission. We love him in this role. I’m sure he’s excited about it.” Cousins wants a max extension, and he might be worth it. But he can also be difficult for teammates and coaches to deal with, which makes committing so much to him dangerous."
Now let’s be realistic here for a bit. Boogie was a bit of a hot head here in the bluegrass, on the court anyway, but his heart was always bigger. Unless you were Jared Swopshire anyway.